Center completes solar power system

MITO, Ibaraki Pref. (Kyodo) Japan's largest solar power system was completed Tuesday at a national science research center in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture.

Japan's largest solar power system is seen completed at a facility owned by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture.

It can generate over 1,000 kw of electricity and is expected to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 300 tons a year.

In addition to supplying electricity to the center's facilities, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology will use the system to test and evaluate four kinds of materials for use in solar panels, the center said.

The system uses about 5,600 solar panels, attached to the roofs of buildings and parking garages at the research compound, and 211 transformers.

The solar panels cover a total area of 6,500 sq. meters, about the size of a soccer field.

The newly installed panels can generate 869 kw of power that together with existing facilities at the center have the capacity to generate an output of over 1,000 kw.

The system can supply about 1 million kwh of electricity a year, equivalent to the annual power consumption of 300 households, according to the center.

Japan has been the world's top user of solar energy since 2000, boosted by the implementation of a system that provides subsidies to place solar panels on homes. The total capacity of domestic solar power facilities is roughly 640,000 kw, nearly 50 percent of global capacity.

The government has set a target of boosting this figure to 4.82 million kw by 2010.